The use of digital technologies in omnichannel retailing : understanding integrated customer experience across diverse touchpoints

Abstract

Digital technologies have become an inseparable part of the retail customer experience. Retailers have many new tools for building customer experience, such as personalization, mobile applications, and social media. However, the impact of these emerging channels on customer experience still remains mostly unclear. Therefore, this dissertation aims to contribute to the omnichannel marketing research by investigating the customer experience in these relatively new contexts. From managerial perspective, this dissertation contributes to the utilization of these tools via four research articles. Article I approaches the omnichannel customer experience by using qualitative customer interviews; Article II offers a systematic literature review of mobile retailing adoption; Article III considers the role of personalization and hedonic motivation in building the omnichannel experience; and Article IV examines the role of social media in the consumer purchasing process and compares the effects of user-generated and brand-generated social media content on customer experience. Based on the results of this dissertation, different marketing tools, such as mobile stores and applications and social media, seem to be context related. Even the previous omnichannel research highlights the importance of seamless channel integration, retailers should note the effects of both the channel used and the product category in their marketing activities because emotional and cognitive marketing activities are effective in different scenarios. From managerial perspective, it is essential to see the difference of emotions, that are linked to hedonic consumption, and cognitive information processing, which is more effective in utilitarian product categories. More specifically, results underscore the role of social media marketing regarding cognitive purchases and show that informative social media communications decrease the harmful effects of negative electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) on customer experience, decreased purchase intentions, and intention to generate negative e-WOM.